Thursday, September 29, 2011

Just as its name implies, the human sundial is a sundial involving the participation of human body. The instrument serves to tell the time according to the direction of our shadow cast under sun.
The human sundial consists of two parts:
A time tally marked with the numbers or titles of time;
A month (or solar term) bar marked with month numbers or solar term titles.

When using the sundial, the user stands on the exact month (or solar term) of the time marked on the month (or solar term) bar; however, he should stick to the midline of the month (or solar term) bar, regardless of the month (or solar term) position of the time on the bar, which may be marked on the left or right.

For more info and pictures about sundials in ancient china you may visit: http://hua.umf.maine.edu/China/astronomy/tianpage/0021sundial5416bw.html

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Brief History:
Kompyang(光餅) was named after Qi Jiguang, who invented it, taking the idea from Japanese onigiri. When Qi Jiguang led his troops into Fujian in 1562, the Japanese pirates, fearing his name, engaged mainly in guerrilla-style battles. Qi Jiguang noticed that the Japanese pirates could always trace where his troops camped because of the smoke that rose up to the sky when the soldiers prepared their meals. He found out the Japanese pirates had no such problem because they brought onigiri with them. So Qi Jiguang invented a kind of cake with a hole in the center so that they could be strung together to be conveniently carried along.

Later, to commemorate Qi Jiguang's victory against the pirate raiders, the cakes were named guang bing.
If any one of you visit Sitiawan,Perak or Sibu, Kuching make sure you buy and try this, because its freakinlicious good... In Sitiawan they sell either plain or with pork.